Chapter 224: People’s Desire (VII)
After only being away from home for a year, Dong Yang, a soldier of the Han army, felt a little unfamiliar or at least uncomfortable when he picked up the hoe again.
However, the most important thing for the troops at the moment is not to cultivate the land, but to build water conservancy projects. Qingzhou has planned many water conservancy projects and strives to complete them before the beginning of spring.
After working for more than 20 minutes, he heard the sound of a whistle. This is the current rule in the army. You have to rest after working for a certain period of time. They said that the overall working time this time is long and the workload is heavy. We need to prevent "inflammation" caused by excessive exertion. Dong Yang was too lazy to figure out the complicated stuff. Anyway, he just had to finish the work according to the regulations and rest according to orders.
When you sit down to rest, you can see that the Gao family's vast farmland is in a good location. A river flows through the Gao family's farmland, which is very convenient for irrigation. As a local big family, the Gao family already has such a unique advantage.
In contrast, villagers with small surnames such as the Dong family originally had less land, located on gentle slopes and higher land. In short, they had to rely on luck. Looking in the opposite direction of the Gao family, the vast land there originally belonged to another large gentry. Now it has been "expropriated" by the Han regime, and almost all of the gentry's family has fled. The expropriation is probably permanent.
The land there is flat and quite suitable for farming. If Dong Yang's family had not insisted on not leaving the village, they could have gone to the state-owned farm over there to farm.
After a short break, we continued to work. Fortunately, the construction of the canal was not particularly large, and it was almost done in the past ten days.
At lunch time, the Dong family members who were working gathered together. Looking at the Gao family's fields, everyone started cursing.
Dong Yang ate his meal in silence, thinking that it was useless to scold him. If he really wanted to change the situation, he had to work on the state-owned farm. He was almost done eating when someone suddenly said, "Dong Yang, you are a soldier from our village. You can lead the soldiers to fight and ask them to give up the water."
"Ah?" Dong Yang was confused by this statement and didn't know how to respond.
"Don't pretend. Look at the ditch we dug. Isn't it to draw water from the headwaters?"
Dong Yang really didn't think so much. While he was wondering, he was pulled up and dragged to the top of the ditch. After walking for a while, he saw that the starting point was not far from the source of the stream.
Pointing to the other side, Dong Yang asked, "There's water here too!"
Hearing Dong Yang's unconfident tone, Tong Zong said disdainfully: "It's close! But it's three feet deep here, how can you draw water?"
The straight-line distance from the top of the ditch to a large pool of water was less than ten meters, but the water surface of the pool was at least ten meters away. The edge of the pool was made of hard rocks, and a metal tool could only break off a few fragments. Standing on the rocks at the edge and looking down, I felt a little dizzy.
Turning back, he was pulled to the other side by his fellow clansman. Although the distance looked about a mile, as long as he dug past it, he would reach the source of the Gao family's creek. It would only take a little more effort, and if he dug past it, he would definitely be able to use it.
Dong Yang just felt annoyed, which was the case every time he encountered such troublesome things. He said, "I can't do anything about it. I don't care. " and went back to work.
This back and forth had already attracted the attention of everyone on the opposite Gao family's land. The Gao family hurried back to report the matter to the head of the Gao family. After speaking nervously, the reporter almost panicked and said, "Master, if our water is taken away again, what will we do this year!"
When Master Gao first heard this, his face turned extremely grim. After a moment, he stood up and told a few people to go out. When he came back, he smiled as he entered the door and shouted, "Call the master to go to the ancestral hall."
Once something is done in the ancestral hall, it will naturally become extremely formal. This is why the Gao family hid at home last time, but had to come out after the Han army broke into the ancestral hall. Once the ancestral hall is smashed, it will cause a devastating blow to the reputation of the Gao family's head.
Almost every family with the surname Gao came to the meeting in the ancestral hall. There was no joy on Mr. Gao's face. He said to everyone with a tragic look: "Everyone, last time the Dong family came to our place to rob people, our family lost face."
Hearing this, most of the people present had no sympathy. It was Master Gao who was embarrassed, and it had nothing to do with the surname Gao. The girl from the Dong family that Master Gao had robbed was all taken by Master Gao, and no one got a single hair. Not to mention that Master Gao had never shown any special favors to the people with the surname Gao.
Master Gao cursed in his heart, but on his face he turned his anger into an even more indignant tone, "I went to see yesterday, the Dong family dug a ditch again, they are trying to steal our water. This year I reduced the rent to 30%, and I didn't even collect the money that was supposed to be paid in advance. We are all looking forward to a good life this year, but the water was stolen, the Dong family doesn't want us to live well!"
After hearing this, the Gao people became emotional and someone immediately asked if this was true.
"Whether it's true or not, everyone can go and see for themselves!" After saying this, Mr. Gao asked his men to take some people to see it.
Now, dozens of people with the surname Gao rushed to the land where the Dong family and the small surnames gathered. It happened that the canal was repaired here. Seeing a group of people with the surname Gao pouring into the land here, they were also scared.
China has always disapproved of marrying people with the same surname, so basically every place has a big surname, which is the main surname of a place, and a small surname, which is a surname with fewer people.
When the common people of small families saw so many people from the Gao family coming, they immediately stepped forward to block their fields.
Since they were big and small, there were of course many conflicts. The two sides even fought each other and killed someone. Seeing that the other side was full of hostility, the people of the Gao family unconsciously thought that what Master Gao said might be true.
Someone ran very fast, bypassed the barrier of the people with small surnames, and rushed to the field. Sure enough, he saw a ditch dug over there. He didn't have time to take a closer look, and the people with small surnames caught up with him. The people who saw the ditch ran back to their camp and shouted, "They are digging a ditch!"
Hearing this, the Gaos were furious. Grabbing water was a matter of life and death. If the people of the lower surnames cut back on water, the people who rented the Gaos' land would have no water to irrigate their fields. No water to irrigate the fields in the spring meant that the crops would probably not survive the water-scarce late spring and early summer.
No one thought much of it. Fights had happened so many times before, so there was no need to think too much. Someone immediately started fighting, and then hundreds of people on both sides started fighting.
Bang! Bang! Bang! A few gunshots calmed the crowd that had just started to fight. Even if the people had not joined the militia, they had seen the militia training and the regular soldiers of the Han army demonstrating their weapons to the villagers.
The thick wooden boards were stacked several layers high, and one shot could penetrate them. The people were so impressed by this weapon that they did not dare to confront it head-on.
Taking advantage of this gap, the militia captain who had just arrived rushed to the center of the fight with a revolver in hand and pulled apart the people who were still fighting.
"What are you fighting for! If someone gets killed, you'll have to pay with your own life! Don't you want to live?" The captain was so angry that his thick eyebrows stood up and he almost yelled.
Some of the Gaos had sneaked into Mr. Gao's house. Seeing that the fight that was about to be covered in blood was resolved by just a few people, they hurried forward and asked loudly, "Sir, you asked them to dig a ditch, but you want to use our water!"
The captain was very unhappy and asked, "When did you use the water from Gao's house? I didn't see it."
"The ditches are all over there! How could there be none?"
The captain cursed, "Bullshit! Where is the ditch? You guys from that side, come with me! Let's see where the ditch is!"
After cursing, the captain turned around and was about to take the people with the surname Gao to see what was happening, but he saw Dong Yang and his group of people with the surname Xiao were still blocking the edge of the field. The captain was so angry that he shouted, "All of you get out of the way! Let them go and see!"
"What should we do if our land is trampled on?" the Dong brothers beside Dong Yang shouted.
The captain shouted, " We are all farmers, so we all care about our crops! Fighting will only damage the crops, so let them go and see!"
After all, they were facing soldiers with guns, so the common people did not dare to act rashly and could only make way. The Gao family did not expect the captain to be so generous, so they all walked along the field road honestly, and no one dared to trample on the crops.
When they reached the irrigation area, the Gao family followed the ditch. Everyone knew how to irrigate the plants, but a few followed the ditch to the lowlands, but they gave up after a short distance and turned back to the higher ground.
When they reached the end of the ditch, dozens of people looked at the high end of the ditch, looking left and right, all with suspicious expressions.
The Dong family members shouted, "Are you blind? This place is still two miles away from you. Do you know any magic to make the water fly over here?"
The people in Mr. Gao's house seemed to be about to be proven wrong, so they immediately shouted, "Do you know magic to make such a high water flow up?"
To the ordinary Gao people, both sides seemed to make sense and they were in a dilemma. They didn't know which side to believe.
"What are you arguing about!" the captain shouted again. But the captain didn't know what the higher-ups were going to do. The Gao family's question was actually correct. It would take a lot of effort to transport water to such a high place. Even if the water was brought up, it would not be enough to irrigate a few acres.
But things had come to this point, so of course they couldn't give in. The captain shouted, "I said I wouldn't touch your water, and I won't! If you keep making such a fuss, I'll be mad!"
The Gao family knew they could not fight against the guns, so they had to leave. However, after retreating to the Gao family's land, only some of them went back to report the news, and most of them stayed.
After receiving the report, Master Gao said to the Gao people with a painful look: "I know that some of our people have joined the militia. At this time, we can't help outsiders harm our own people! Everyone, call our people back, and each family should send people to protect our water!"
At this point, the Gao people all agreed and went back to prepare.
Looking at the backs of these people, Master Gao was delighted. The government actually wanted to have a say in the countryside. It was really blind to Huo Chong!
